REPORT OF A COMIITTEE, 



APPOINTED BY THE 



Imiisgltania BMt Junaltal ^Etttg, 



TO VISIT THE 



FARMERS' HIGH SCHOOL 



OF 



p»Eisr]srsYLVi^]sriA.. 



A. Boyd Hamiltoh, Printer, Harrisburg. 



^^'f 



Publishei^ 



[PROCEEDINGS IN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 



OF THE 



PENNSYL\^ANIA STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania 
State Agricultural Society, held January 17, 1860,at Harris- 
bur^>-, reports being in order, Gen. E. W. Sturdevant, of Luzerne 
county, on behalf of a committee appointed by the Society at a 
previous meeting, reported as follows : 

That on the 18th day of May last, (1859,) in discharge of the duty assign- 
ed them, they visited the institution. It is beautifully situated in Centre 
county, in one of the finest and most extensive limestone ranges in this State. 
Of the four hundred (400) acres, near the centre of which the buildings have 
been located, three hundred and sixty acres are under cultivation. The land 
is fresh and productive, and the soil susceptible of the very highest degree 
of improvement. 

The college buildings have been designed in good taste, and vv^ith a view- 
to permanence and convenience. The architects who undertook the erection 
of the buildings, laid the foundation and carried up the walls to the height of 



4 

the first story, when finding that the cost would exceed the contract price, in 
July, 1858, abandoned their contract. The trustees thereupon suspended the 
work upon the centre building, east wing and curtain, and urged forward the 
work upon the west wing and curtain to completion. 

The west wing and curtain, constituting about one-third of the entire struc- 
ture, embraces two society and recitation rooms, one of which is used as a 
chapel, a room for the business office and college library, a reading room, a 
room for the chemical and philosophical apparatus, a room for the geological 
and mineralogical collections, three wash rooms, three bath rooms, a large 
and convenient dwelling house, now occupied by Professor Waring, together 
with sixty comfortable, well ventilated rooms for the accommodation of stu- 
dents and an unmarried professor. 

Besides this building, there are two good dvvellinj!^- houses, a large and con- 
venient barn, v/ork shop and tool house, blacksmith shop, wash and ironing 
house, slaughter house and pig pens, corn cribs and wagon shed, cattle and 
iiay scales, root and grafting house, &c., &c. 

The students, numbering upwards of one hundred, represent thirty coun- 
ties of the State. On entering, they are examined and arranged in accord- 
ance with their acquirements, into two classes, called the third and fourth 
classes, one of vv^hich will graduate in three years, the other in four j^ears, 
from the opening of the institution. They receive scientific instruction from 
four learned and experienced professors — who, being practical men, have also 
a general supervision of the iieJd labor.* 

From two and a-half to three hours of active labor is required of every 
student daily. The work, as well within the College building as in the field, 
seems to your committee to have been well done; and very careful investiga- 
tion aud inquiry led to the conclusion that the work is performed by the stu- 
dents willingly and cheerfully. 

A certain number are detailed to the foreman of the farm and the foreman 
of the nursery, &c., for morning labor. At the expiration of their time of 
service, their places are supplied by a new detail, who labor until noon. The 
same occurs in the afternoon. The labor, in every department, is thus 
performed daily by four distinct details. The labor required affords the 
exercise, and no more than the exercise essential to proper physical develop- 
ment. 

* Since the preparation of this report the Trustees have been fortunate in securing the 
services of Evan Pugh, Esq., as Principal of the Institution, Mr. Pugh's extensive oppor- 
tuiiitieid for observation among the Agricultural colleges of Europe, and his administrative 
abihty, pecaliarly fit him for the position. 



So far from disqualifying the student for study, it prepares him for mental 
culture. If the weather be unsuitable for out door labor, the foreman leads 
the detail to the performance of work specially reserved for inclement weather. 
Youth, like men, are naturally inclined to ease and indolence. Some motive, 
some incentive beyond the mere prospect of promoting health, is required to 
secure regular exercise, and without regularity, physical exercise ceases 
to be beneficial j nay, it is often, from excessive violence, highly injurious. 
The students appear to enjoy remarkably good health, and if their day's 
dining with your committee is evidence, are blessed with unusually good ap- 
petites. 

As leading objects of this institution, the trustees seem to have had steadily 
in view : 

First. To elevate and^dignify raanual labor, by associating it with the ac- 
quisition of scientific know'e !^e. 

Seco7i.d. To reduce the expenses of a thorough practical, scientific educa- 
tion, so as to bring its acquisition within the reach of farmers, mechanics and 
business men. 

Third. To secure a place at which agriculturalists may, from time to time, 
meet and consult for the promotion of their interests, and to which all inter- 
ested may confidently look for reliable information. 

We live in an age of progress, an age in which the human mind is actively 
engaged in the pursuit of knowledge — not a knowledge of mere abstractions, 
which have so much occupied the attention of the learned in other ages — but 
a knowledge of those arts and sciences which bear directly upon the business 
of every day life, enlarging the sphere of man's enjoyments, and promoting 
his happiness. That such is the spirit of our age, is evidenced in the estab- 
lishment of the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania. An institution or- 
ganized upon the principle that all labor which conduces to man's comfort and 
happiness is equally honorable, that it is the character of the occupant, and 
not the character of the occupation, which elevates or degrades, and that, 
therefore, to raise any useful pursuit, though now a degradation, it is only 
necessary to institute learning, energj and integrity, in the room of ignorance, 
indolence and vice. To remove the false prejudices of tlie community and to 
develope and elucidate this sublime truth, is the destiny of this great institu- 
tion. 

it addresses itself to men of wealth, who, with servants constantly at hand 
to do the work, find it impossible, at home, to impress the minds of their 
children with the true dignitj;^ of manual labor — impossible, because their la- 
bor is ascociated with menial service. 



6 

It appeals to the business man, who can spare annually from his resources, 
the sum required for his son's support ; lessened by the product of his son's labor, 
when the expenses at any other institution of similar grade, would be entirely 
beyond his reach. But as an experimental farm, in charge of scientific, prac- 
tical professors, aided by laborers in pursuit of knowledge— as a placp at 
which Scientific Agriculturalists may meet, and spend days with interest and 
with profit; as a great central point for the collection and dissemination of 
ascertained results in Scientific Agriculture, it comes to supply a want long 
felt by the Executive Officers of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society. 
In a sense of this want the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania had its 
origin. 

Its infancy was nurtured and sustained by a liberal appropriation of the 
surplus funds of the society, and now, though it \va^ attained the stature, the 
vigor and the dignity of manhood, it still looks to its Joster mother for fur- 
ther material aid, to enable its Trustees to complete the residue of the build- 
ings, and accomplish the great work for which it is destined. 

The self-sacrificing labor of the Trustees, who have spent their time and 
their money without charge, challenge our admiration and command our 
confidence. 

Your commictee would do injustice to their own sense of right, in failing 
particularly to refer to the invaluable services rendered to the institution by 
the unremitting attention of one of the trustees in particular. The refer- 
ence is to H. N. M'Allister, Esq., of Bellefonte, who from the beginning of 
this enterprise has been untiring in his devotion to the interests of the School. 
To the same gentleman the committee are indebted for many of the facts 
embraced in this report. In conclusion, we take great pleasure in c^.mniend- 
ing the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania to the patronage, nut only of 
the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society, but to the liberal support of 
every man in the community, disposed to aid in the great work of human 
progress. 

All which is most respectfully submitted, 

E. W. STUKDEVANT, 
DAVIU TAGGART, 
WILL. A. STOKES, 

Committett 



7 

After the reading, Col. Thomas P. Knox, of Montgomery coun= 
ty, expressed his gratification at the very able and satisfactory 
report, and moved that two thousand copies be printed in pamph- 
let form for the use of the society and for distribution. This 
passed unanimously, with the recommendation that the members 
of the Executive Committee exert their influence to have it printed 
and widely disseminated in the resj)ective counties of their dis- 
tricts. 

Subsequently the teociety voted to subscribe fifteen hundred 
dollars to the Hio;h School. 

A. 0. HIESTER, Sec'y. 



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